in the Foreign Service

Narrowing down potential placements

I swear everyone does this. So you know what! So will I. Now that I have a slightly better idea of a timeline for me, I am going to try and narrow down potential countries that leave THIS YEAR. I am going to base it on previous staging dates, if the country has my program, and potentially language.

Englishly countries – aka not Spanish, French, or Russian based countries. The great thing is – I am really interested in all of the following:
Namibia
Botswana
Kenya
Ethiopia
Lesotho

After September, it looks like assignments drop off significantly. I know that I may by some chance qualify for Southeastern Asia or Eastern European spots. Here are some of those options this year:
Ukraine
Morocco
Azerbaijan

I would have a lot more options if I got pushed back into the next year. I just signed a 6 month lease though that goes through November 30th. Obviously, I would prefer to leave before then, otherwise I will have to do another crappy lease wrangling.

Thinking about calling my recruiter to ask about business programs and this year. He should totally have access to that information, especially if he nominates people for specific periods.

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7 thoughts on “Narrowing down potential placements”

Hello again,
Glad you’ve made some progress on your application! I finally talked to the PC placement desk about the ‘important’ letter I was expecting and everything got worked out. Apparently they hadn’t logged my acceptance and confirmation accurately, but now I’m back on the list for Uganda. And you never know, they might reach out to you early, and you could be on the list too! No matter where you end up, I’m sure it’ll be an amazing experience!!!

Yep, everyone does this to one extent or another. It almost always comes down to serious waiting and surprises, regardless of the strategies/logic employed in trying to foresee the outcome. In my case, I was nominated for C/S America or the Caribbean in June ’10 for departure in Jan/Feb/ Mar ’11. I received Medical Clearance in Dec ’10. I was repeatedly assured by my recruiter, my nurse reviewer and by 2 placement & assessment assistants that I would receive an invitation “soon.” However, I did not receive an invitation until April and it was for departure in Sept ’11 and for a region that had not been in any previous discussions I had with any PC staff. Never-the-less, I am extremely happy with the placement and the timing is working out, too.
So, while all of the sleuthing and attempting to figure out what and when PC might end up issuing an invitation was all wrong, it did serve to fill the time while waiting.
Best wishes to you.

Happy to hear your placement news! I’m curious how they qualify some of the African nations as French/English based. I think I have this thing …where I assume that everyone who’s leaving should becoming with me…but yeah have you considered Rwanda? National languages are English/French (and a 3rd).